


Complicated

by sassystuckystan



Series: A Bucky's Work is Never Done. [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Discipline, F/M, Fluff, M/M, mentions of spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 06:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14279427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassystuckystan/pseuds/sassystuckystan
Summary: Bucky's life has never been simple. He has never lived a normal life where the only person he has to worry about is himself. When Rosemary, the girl who was thrown into his custody by Shield, proves to be more of a handful than he originally thought, Bucky needs to figure out how to handle her for his sanity, and as it turns out hers as well. Turns out he is already somewhat of an expert in handling brats. Who knew? (Fury apparently.)Or, Rosemary's kind-of-origin-story and how part of her and Bucky's relationship developed.





	Complicated

Bucky never asked for his life to be so... complicated. So completely off the beaten path and complex in ways that ensured he would never categorically be considered normal. 

First, it started when his dad died when he was just entering high school, which back then meant that he, despite being a young kid, had to become the "man" of his household and take care of the family, providing for them financially and otherwise. Despite his mother’s protests he immediately got a job after school working at the docks. They had him do mostly manual labor which made him bulk up quite a bit during puberty. The pay was good as well, as it was all under the table stuff, so he took home a nice cut each Friday. As a student and an athlete, he had a lot on his plate, so adding a job was stressful but, he handled it with grace he thinks. 

Well, as much grace as one could have handled it with given the fact that he was 15, just figuring out what his _dick_ was and trying to do well in school (and avoid getting whacked for all trouble Steve got him in.) His mother had his father's pension and a part-time job of her own too which helped them substantially. All in all, they lived pretty well back then, despite how bad the economy was and lack of his father, God rest his soul. Not to mention, Steve was such a handful at the time too, only adding to Bucky's plate. He got into so many fights with the neighborhood kids, trying to prove something to them Bucky never understood, eventually his mother wouldn't let him outside without her or Bucky there.

But then Bucky moved out when he turned 18, and the _Steve_ revelation happened. Steve’s ma had passed away when he was only 17 and so he had nowhere to go and Bucky was an adult, making real good money after being at the docks for so long, so they got a place together. And maybe it didn't all happen at once but he feels like he realized it all at once, how in love he was with the tiny blonde bag of bones, covered in bruises and in poor health eleven out of ten times, always seeming to be fighting the world to earn his place in it.

To be gay, well bisexual he realizes now, in a time when you could be arrested, killed, tortured even... it wasn’t ideal. But Steve, well Steve is worth living with that fear. Maybe he’s a pain in the ass, that sometimes needs pain _on the ass_ to stop acting like a _stubborn ass_ , but Bucky loves that little punk, so the effort was well worth it.

Just when he thinks things are stagnating, he has a nice little place in Brooklyn and a nice fella to come home to every night, he is opening up a letter from the U.S. government telling him he is being drafted for the war. Since he’s a little smart and comes from a long line of army men, he is made a sergeant of the 107th almost immediately after basic. People, _soldiers_ , are looking up to him and relying on him to tell them what to do and that’s just... It’s a lot of pressure for a twenty-something-year-old idiot like him. 

Then there is Steve, the stubborn punk he had waiting on him at home, trying his damnedest to get into the military, on to the front line like he has something to prove to everyone once again. Bucky speaks with every recruiter in the northeast he knows and tells them if a young blonde man tries to enlist, do not under any circumstances, no matter how much he begs, let him join the military. He gives them pictures of Steve and everything. They all give him funny looks but they go with it because Bucky is a Sergeant and that title means something, even if it doesn't feel like it should. 

Of course, it's that mindset that has him ultimately failing in the army because he leads his men right into a trap; to be tortured and killed at the hands of the Nazi’s and Hydra. Those who didn’t die wish they had, hell sometimes on his bad days he wishes he had. Bucky stands up for his men and takes a lot of abuse for it, but at least he can try to protect them. They fill him with chemicals that make his skin crawl and burn at the same time. They abuse his body to its limit, past his limits at one point, only to bring him back for round two (and three, and four…)

Instead of going home a hero, he is pumped full of what he now knows as the Walmart brand serum and he lives on to tell the tale. The plus side is he gets to see his Stevie because the punk has to rescue his sorry ass, but it’s different because well Steve is different. He’s big, muscular, heroic, and not on the verge of dying anymore. They make it out of the Hydra camp, and yeah his head isn’t quite right, but he has his Stevie and it looks like they will be together for a while, taking down the Nazi’s once and for all.

That all is torn away from him in a matter of a few months.

He falls from the train and he becomes the “fist” of Hydra, the “asset,” and he’s “shaping a century.” And Steve? The second Bucky's back is turned he goes off and gets himself killed/frozen in ice. Seriously, that man is an absolute _punk._ Now, Bucky has a metal arm, and he is killing men he doesn’t know for men he doesn’t know, becoming a man he doesn’t know. 

But he knows Steve. He knows Steve and that’s what saves him because Steve is actually alive and maybe he has always taken care of Steve, but this time, Steve takes care of him. 

Now if only Steve could take care of himself like 6% of the time and maybe wear parachutes 100% of the time...

So finally, _finally_ , Bucky gets to heal and garner a sense of normalcy or create a new normal more like, seeing as he is friends with a demi-God and a girl that can move shit with her mind and the future's bananas taste all wrong Steve what the hell happened around here? 

Therapists and scientists fix his brain, taking out all the stuff Hydra put there, and eventually, the nightmares and memories disappear, but they are never far away. It takes months of blood, sweat, and literal tears before Bucky feels like himself again. Maybe he will never be who he once was, but he feels closer every day and that is what is important. 

Dr. Cho makes him a new arm, in some magic robotic “cradle” machine as they call it. The new arm is so closely identical to the original that Bucky stops having nightmares about losing it as if it never happened. The human psyche is almost as complicated and hard to understand as his life is at this point, Bucky reflects.

Everything levels off and he finds a routine; he trains, he goes on missions, he spends time with Steve and the team, he figures out how to live in the world he’s woken up in. 

Naturally, it was time for someone to throw a wrench in his plans.

That someone was Nick Fury and the wrench was a girl named Rosemary Zullo. Steve and Bucky get a call one morning to go to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and by that night they are bringing a young girl, who has spent almost her entire life being made into a weapon just like Bucky was, to his apartment at the tower, acting as her guardian, or prison guards as she sees it. 

She’s dangerous, emotionally stunted with the foresight and decision making of a 16-year-old, the combat and espionage skills of a seasoned professional with minimum 30 years’ experience, all wrapped up in the body of a sultry 23-year-old woman. 

Oh, and she has some sort of "superpower" that she can use to manipulate people’s minds. It’s about as confusing as it sounds. Bucky really hates the future. All he wanted was flying cars but yet all they got is something called global warming and cell phones that he has broken at least a dozen of.

Thankfully, Fury injected both Steve and himself with sub-dermal chips that let off low-grade electromagnetic emissions that interfere with her ability to mess with either of their heads. As one does when their adopted 23-year-old super spy is going to move in with them. 

See? His life is not normal and never going to be normal at this rate.

All of this, the people, the responsibility, the sheer lack of ever maybe just once getting a chance to relax and live his goddamned life, is the reason Bucky hides on the roof at least once a month. At least.

It’s a lot for Bucky to keep under wraps all the time. He does it, because he loves Steve, obviously, and is so grateful to S.H.I.E.L.D. for helping to clear his name. And the girl, Rosemary, he cares for her a lot too. At such a young age she was snatched up and taken from her home in Sicily, away from her parents and siblings. Taken to Siberia and raised to become a weapon, a cold ruthless killer, so proficient in the craft that most of her high-profile kills became cold cases and sealed before she was ever on anyone’s radar as a rising threat. They experimented on her, gave her a watered-down version of the serum, amongst other things that the best minds in science can’t quite pinpoint. No one knows how, but she also can alter minds, play with memories, speak to you on levels you didn’t know existed. It’s similar to Wanda’s abilities but darker, stronger, more invasive in ways that remind them of Loki's scepter. And that’s only what they know about her powers; the girl is not forthcoming with information. 

She speaks languages they don’t even know of and simply knows how to do almost anything. Put an instrument in her hands and she can play it; give her knitting needles and she knows every stitch; give her tools and a broken engine and she can get it running in under an hour. She solved a math equation Bruce had been working on for the better part of a year. An actual genius, smarter than even Tony.

Based on intel from where the base they captured her in, she seems to have been a part of Red Room, and Natasha is sure of it when she hears her speak Russian for the first time. It’s a subtle dialect one only could have learned from the Red Room. She was tossed around from several organizations before and after Red Room however as she has years missing, thought to have been spent in Germany and China. There’s even suspicion she spent some time in South Africa. Hydra, KGB, Red Room, and so many unknown parties have utilized her talents. Unlike Bucky, she didn’t have a set of words to get her to comply, they simply put a collar on her and flipped the switch. 

When S.H.I.E.L.D. found her at the base, tied up and locked in a cell, they saw a sliver of humanity left in her and knew she would be an irreplaceable asset to them and the Avengers if they could undo all the damage. When they found out her family was brutally murdered minutes after her abduction, they knew they had to try to rehabilitate her as she had no one left in the world. She was taken when she was just 14 years old, meaning it is possible she is emotionally developed enough to form relationships with people, not just allegiances. If they could turn Natasha and Bucky what is one more? 

So, after working through his own trauma for years, Bucky is in a position to help this girl through hers. She is just as much a victim as he was and by god was he going to try his damnedest to get her in a place where she can be a happy, healthy person. 

That’s what leads him to today. It has been 5 weeks since Rosemary has come home with them. In that time, she has run away, refused to connect with anyone going as far as to instigate physical fights with several people including Steve. She trashed her room in a fit of rage several mornings in a row now and she hasn’t been eating nearly enough food to sustain her for the past two weeks, forcing Bucky to take her to medical and get nutrients put into her via IV.

Bucky has tried, her therapists, mentors, and social worker have tried (when she’s not throwing something at them mind) everyone has tried. They all desperately want to help this girl, but what if she is beyond there help?

Bucky finally gives up and calls Fury begging for his help.

“Seriously sir, I don’t know if we are the right people to help rehabilitate Rosemary. She’s proving to be quite the handful.” He says, trying to word it as delicately as possible knowing the girl might be able to hear him.

“You giving up on that girl Barnes?” Fury asks in the voice that Bucky hates, that smug indignant voice that only Nick Fury could master. He is _challenging_ him. No, Bucky will not fall for that bullshit for the millionth time. Not today Nick, not today.

“Sir she poured bleach on all our clothes and then set our closet on fire.” 

“What if Steve gave up on you, Barnes?” The man responds ignoring the fact that Bucky has no clothes and almost lost his hair trying to put the literal fire that had cropped up from Rosemary’s efforts. 

“With all due respect Sir, this is not the same thing.” He may have tried to kill everyone, but it was before he accepted their help. And he never set them on _fire_.

“Barnes that girl has no one in the world besides you two. She was tortured and deprived her entire life. She needs someone to care about her, teach her some boundaries.”

“And how pray tell would you like me to do that?!” He responds frustrated. It’s not that he doesn’t care for the girl, he does. He feels so bad for what has happened to her, can relate to the horrors she’s been through. To be made into something you’re not, a weapon, a method of chaos, he understands it intimately. But just because he understands it doesn’t mean he knows how to help her heal from it. What worked for him isn’t working for her. Of course, he would be willing to try anything to help her, even if unconventional or time consuming, but she doesn’t communicate with him, or anyone for that matter, what it is that could help her. 

She won’t let anyone in; she’s so guarded, so cold and Bucky knew that would be the case at first. It's not like when he came back because he had Steve, a familiar face, to help remind him he was safe. But Bucky has tried to become that person for her, he has invited her to game nights and movie nights, he offered to show her around New York, take her out into the world and experience life as free a woman. She trains with them and he has asked her if she wanted to spar or if Stark could provide her with any training gear to better suit her. Bucky has cooked her traditional Sicilian dishes and tried to provide her with some of the best foods this century has to offer, because really America knows how to do amazing food at the very least.

Rosemary has fought against every attempt; she doesn’t join team nights, she doesn’t want to explore, and she does not want to eat more than enough to keep her breathing. Her therapists said they encourage her to engage with everyone and to accept the life she has been given, but she wants nothing to do with it. Despite knowing that this is her alternative to some prison cell out in the middle of the ocean, she would rather make everyone’s lives as difficult as possible, including her own.

After weeks of showing her she is safe and cared for with him and Steve and trying so hard to show her that an entire group of people care about her wellbeing, she still lashes out and tries to burn their apartment down. With _fire_. Has Bucky mention he hates fire?

“That’s up to you to figure out Sergeant.” Nick responds, breaking him from his reprieve. “How did your parents teach you how to not be an asshole? How did the military teach you how to be a soldier?” 

“Quite frankly sir?”

“I don’t have time to be anything but.”

“If I acted the way she was my Dad would’ve had taken a stripe out of my ass. My CO too.” Bucky says honestly, very hesitant because, well, “People don’t do that anymore I thought, I mean that’s what I heard anyway, you’re not suggesting I.. plus she has been treated so terribly I mean...” he trails off.

Growing up Bucky had felt the leather end of his father’s belt many times when he was still around. He and Steve were paddled at school countless times together for being little shits to their teachers. Not to mention in the military his CO was very fond of tanning their asses for mouthing off during basic, unconventional sure, but he was their leader and they were at the bottom of the totem pole. Bucky ran many miles with his uniform chaffing his ass because he decided to make himself heard when he shouldn’t have.

Not to mention, Bucky is also very well versed in administering the treatment as he has been spanking Steve’s skinny -now quite muscular- ass since they were in their twenties. As they participate in a domestic discipline-based relationship, Bucky is very familiar with setting up rules and consequences and how best to go about enforcing them in a loving but firm manner. Finding Bucky again was the happiest moment of Steve’s life; his ass wasn’t too fond of the idea of him being back, but his heart felt like it would explode from happiness. That’s what their relationship was all about. Fury suggesting he spank Rosemary, a girl who has been through so much trauma is, well Bucky doesn't know how he feels about it.

Fury lets out a long sigh and for a second Bucky prays that means he sees how inadequate he is to take care of this devil girl.

“Barnes, I haven’t got all day. Are we done here?” 

“Are you serious- Sir! You didn’t answer my question! What am I supposed to do?”

“The same thing you would do if Steve pulled that bullshit.” Fury says finally, and so he knows then. He knows about his and Steve’s relationship, about the punishments and how Steve answers to him and oh my god how does Fury know? Who else knows? Bucky is freaking out, “Yes she has been through hell but she is now safe, has a better life than most the population, and is an adult, If a sore ass keeps her from prison and maybe even the death penalty? She'll get over a few welts. Show her who’s boss and get her in line or it's your ass I am coming after you hear me? I’m counting on you, Barnes.” And with that director Fury hangs up on him.

Great. Well that created more questions than answers.

~*~

Later that night Bucky is lying in bed with his arms around Steve, nuzzling the bigger man as they both get comfortable to go to sleep for the night.

Just as he is on the cusp of drifting off, he hears the door at the end of the hallway click closed very quietly. If he was a person of average hearing he would have never heard it and he could just roll over and bury himself in Steve’s chest.

But he can’t because he isn’t a man of average hearing and he knows who is staying at the end of the hall.

He extracts himself from Steve’s hold and noiselessly makes his way across the room and opens his door, being sure to shut it behind him as gently as possible.

Walking briskly on the balls of his feet he listens for where Rosemary had gone, hearing her fiddle with what he thinks is the window in the living room.

Walking into the room he sees she has already opened the window and had her black leather pant clad leg out the large panel glass window, a large bag on her arm. He rushes over to her quickly and grabs her around her middle, yanking her back into the room.

“Are you out of your mind!” He roars when he gets he on her two feet, slamming the window closed.

“What the fuck- let go of me!” She gasps, caught off guard, pushing at his hands as he tries to grip her arm.

Bucky wrestles with the girl, grabbing her arm, dragging her away from the window as she continues to fight to get out away from him.

“Do you have any idea how stupid that is? We are on the 43rd floor! Do you have a death wish?” He asks incredulously. He’ll have to tell her therapist about this. It couldn’t have been a suicide attempt, she had a bag, but this was definitely under the whole "reckless endangerment" category.

“I could’ve made it you son of a bitch,” Rosemary says, a fire in her eyes as she fights his hold on her like a feral animal, “let go of me goddamn it!”

Bucky walks them over to the couch forcing the girl to sit down, angling his body toward hers. She tries to get up and he pulls her right back down much to her anger. They sit there glaring at one another both breathing heavily from the struggle.

“I think we need to talk Rosemary.” Bucky says finally, breathing out a long-suffering sigh. He really doesn’t want to have this conversation, right now in the middle of the night, but this needs to end and end right now.

“Yeah we do.” She spits back sarcastically, “You need to stop acting like you give a single flying fuck about me and let me leave this godforsaken place already. I've been cleared of all charges so let me leave!”

“How could you say I don’t care?” Bucky snaps back, hands closing around each of her thin wrists as she attempts to leave again. “Steve and I have done everything in our power to help you. The problem is you don’t want to accept our help! Not to mention you were only cleared of the charges as long as you stayed in the tower and let S.H.I.E.L.D. monitor you!”

Rosemary stares at him intensely and Bucky waits for the sarcastic and cutting remark she seems to always have ready for him. 

Instead she stays silent, still seething because he wouldn’t let her _jump to her death_ which reminds him, “How the hell do you think you would’ve survived that jump?”

She shrugs looking away. 

Bucky is not being paid enough for this. In fact, he is not being paid at all for this. He should really ask Fury for some money or another personal therapist because seriously it is 2 am and this girl is looking at the fucking _wall_ during a serious conversation. 

“Rosemary I’m telling you right now, I will sit here all night if I have to. You’ve been out of control since the day you got here,” Bucky says, lowering his voice, “you’ve been through hell, I know that better than anyone else. Maybe I didn’t go through exactly what you did but I was broken down and turned into someone I am not too. But you know you are safe here, you've told your therapists you feel safe. I know this transition is not easy, but I have tried everything that I could to help you. I need you to give me the same effort if you don’t want to end up in some prison cell somewhere. You need to prove you are not a destructive, crazy psychopath if you ever want to truly go out into the world on your own. I believe you aren't, but if you can't mesh peacefully with us here, S.H.I.E.L.D. and anyone else who is watching won't believe you.”

Rosemary still doesn’t look at Bucky, eyes trained in the top corner of the room, disinterested look still on her face. Bucky gives her a minute to take in what he said. They sit in the silence for a few minutes, neither speaking to the other. Bucky lets go of her wrists at some point and she folds her arms and drags her knees up to her chest making herself as small as possible. Finally, she turns to look at him. 

"I don't hate it here." Rosemary says sincerely,"I just, I am having trouble working through all my emotions. I always figured when I was finally free I would be, you know on my own. Since being here I haven't been given true freedom but that's not the problem." She says clearing her throat. "The problem is I don't know if I would be able to handle true freedom right now, I get an impulse I act on it, I get mad and I react immediately. I feel like I finally have control over my body but I don't even know how to actually _control_ it."

They have given her so much freedom over her agency, something she deserves obviously, that she isn’t sure how to handle it. Bucky should’ve seen that coming, hell her therapists should’ve told him to work with her on it more than telling him to keep an eye on her. 

While it wasn’t a problem for him because before he was captured he was a sergeant in the army and a full-grown adult. Of course, he knew how to act and make choices for himself, for the most part, when he came back. Rosemary was a teenager when they took her, barely able to choose who she was going to be. She is used to people instructing exactly how she needed to act and giving her orders to follow. She hasn't had to think about any of this in a long time. Bucky’s heart breaks at the realization of how emotionally deprived Rosemary really has been these past few years. It’s not new information but the depth truly shows. Bucky needs to remember that just because she acts like she doesn’t need their help, she really does, and she doesn’t know how to accept it. 

Bucky nods his head, taking one of her hands in his, "I can help you with that, I know it's hard to figure all this out but I can help you, you don't have to do it alone."

“So what would it look like?” She asks after a few beats of silence, looking at her knees.

Bucky looks up at her, “What do you mean?”

“Effort. On my part, what would that look like?” She asks, still not meeting his eyes. Bucky notices the shakiness of her voice and the color on her cheeks even in this low light.

“That depends.” Bucky decided to say, clearing his throat. “You want to be a part of this family? With Steve and me? The rest of the team?”

She shrugs, eyes downcast we, shoulders hunching in on herself. “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Bucky pauses, placing a finger under her chin to get her to look at him, her hazel eyes shining in the light from the moon. “We want you to be a part of this family if that helps any.” 

She keeps her eyes on him, filling with tears now, as she nods just once. “I guess I do if you still want me to. They told me my family was killed. And the Avengers do good work. I would like to do something good for the world after I have caused so much hurt." She says with a sniffle. "So what do I need to do? How do I make it better?" She asks, eyes pleading with him, melting his heart.

“I’m not asking you to be perfect, no one is perfect, especially around here.” Bucky jokes, “but you need to try. Try to treat people kindly, the way you want to be treated. Join in on group activities, even if you just sit in the corner and talk to no one.” Bucky has spent many team movie nights staring at people from the corner of the couch. “Try to communicate your needs with me. And by god you need to take care of yourself. No more trying to jump out windows.” He says poking her in the arm making her crack a smile.

“You think you can handle all that?”

She nods biting the inside of her cheek anxiously. 

“Is there anything you want to add?” Bucky asks hopefully.

She looks like she is about to say something but decides against it. Fine, Bucky decides, baby steps.

“There’s one more thing I want to discuss.” Bucky says, “I said I would help you and I think we need to give you a few rules. Nothing crazy, but just some boundaries to help you transition better and feel more in control of yourself, without all of the burden.”

Rosemary crinkles her nose at the mention of rules. “What kind of rules?”

Bucky holds back a smile because how much more a puppy dog face reaction could she have given him? Seeing this girl in her twenties pout like a small child is adorable at best and Bucky puts that thought to the absolute back of his head because _no_. “How about let start with, no more jumping out windows or setting things on fire.”

She blushes and cringes visibly. “I am sorry about that. I was just so angry and I...” she mumbles.

“Next time, for the love of god, do anything else. I hate fire so much.” Bucky pleads only half-jokingly, “Not to mention, finding 20 pairs of the same black pants that fit perfectly was a struggle the first time.”

She laughs with him, “What else, I know that can’t be all.”

“Nothing crazy, I promise.” Bucky reassures placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Nothing that isn’t exactly what you need. And since you’re being so cooperative, you can help me make them.”

With that they sit and talk about expectations. How Rosemary must try her best, in whatever form that looks like and trust, Bucky will know when she is trying, and to be an active and positive member of the family and team. She is to try to have more interactions with everyone, at her own pace of course, whether that be just Bucky or Steve who she already feels safe with or one of the other Avengers. She must be more forthcoming with information about her past training and abilities. Not right away, but soon, she must show they the extent of what she knows to ensure she really is on their side.

They decide that Rosemary must eat at least twice a day and both meals must be substantial. Bucky has suggested three times a day, but Rosemary explained that when she was in captivity they fed her once a day and two was already a stretch.

“Alright that’s fine then. Good compromise.” Bucky had said, trying to encourage her to stay open with him.

Leaving the tower is only permitted if done with other people, just for right now, and certain areas of the tower are off limits. She must attend training like the other Avengers and put her best efforts forward if she wants to become an Avenger herself. Lastly, most importantly, she must always listen to Bucky. That one had her rolling her eyes.

“So what happens if I don’t do one of those things? What're the consequences?” She asks on a yawn, clearly tired and drained from their talk. It was 4 am, rightfully so.

“Well it depends on the situation. Might be a loss of earned privileges like if you eventually are able to leave on your own or maybe you want to hang out with someone, and you won’t be able to.” Bucky explains. “For things you’ve been warned about many times or generally just more serious things you will earn a spanking.”

Rosemary’s eyebrows raise to her hairline. “A spanking? I’m sorry, you did read in my file that I am 23, right?”

“I’m well aware. Steve is over a hundred years old and he still gets spanked for breaking the rules. What’s your point?” Bucky says, trying to stay stern.

Rosemary’s jaw drops a little. “You spank Captain America? Are you the one with a death wish?” She asks awed.

Bucky outright laughs and helps her up off the couch to walk her back to her room. “He ain’t as tough as he looks. He’s just a little brat like you.”

She scoffs at that rolling her eyes. “Well that’s just a lie, I am practically an angel.” Bucky outright laughs at that but doesn’t correct her. 

Rosemary lets herself be lead to her bedroom. Bucky waits in her room while she changes into pjs in the connecting bathroom and comes back into the room. She gets into bed and he tucks her in making her flush automatically. Bucky ignores the reaction, chalking it up to how late it is.

As he straightens back up and turns to leave Rosemary blurts, “Don’t spankings hurt though? Like a lot?”

Bucky turns back to look at the girl, eyebrows furrowed. “Well yes they do but it’s discipline. It’s not meant to harm you, but to teach you. If it doesn't work for you we will try something else.” 

“Oh.” Rosemary says still looking apprehensive. "Okay. I guess I will try then. I trust you." 

Bucky walks back over to the side of her bed, letting his thumb graze her cheek. She looks up at him, still nervous.

“I promise I will never hurt you. This is going to help you, I am going to help you. You deserve to have a good life and Rosemary I promise I will do everything in my power to help you get it.” He says, emotion in his voice.

Tears well up in her eyes again as she nods, and he bends down to kiss her forehead. 

“Get some sleep, Rosemary.” He says with one last sweep of his thumb against her cheek.

“Call me Rosie. That's what my family calls me. Called me.” She says as his back turns to walk out the door. “Good night Bucky. Thank you.”

Bucky feels his chest tighten as he walks to her door. He looks at her one last time as she is already beginning to doze off. “Good night, Rosie.”

Bucky walks back to his room and crawls into bed with Steve. The other man mumbles, asking him if he is okay, and Bucky tells him to go back to sleep everything is just fine.

Maybe Bucky’s life is so complicated and just a general fucking mess, from start to present. It feels like he can never seem to catch a single break in any direction. He always has to be the responsible one and the one on top of everything and everyone. He is exhausted goddamn it, he deserves a break.

But in the same token, if it means the team, his Stevie, and that girl at the end of the hall are all let down because of he has a lot to handle? Well, that’s just not an even trade. He’d do anything to keep his family happy, healthy, and moving forward, which is exactly what he’s going to do. A Bucky’s work is never done. And right now that is just fine by him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys I know it has been a minute, but finals are killing me and I have been very sick :'( cry for me.
> 
> I said I wanted to do some form of an origin story and well I kinda did that here? Idk how I feel about it. I said the next work would be smut but I lied sorry I know im trash :P
> 
> I have two installments kind of pieced together, one about Rosie's birthday and one about how Steve and Bucky got together. Which one do you want first? I could go either way tbh. Both contain spanking, the former has smut.
> 
> My tumblr is still [sassystuckystan](https://sassystuckystan.tumblr.com/) come say hi! Geek out about infinity war with me because omg 15 more days til I see it im screaming. 
> 
> Kudo, comment, show some love. Thank you to the few of you who have commented, your feedback and input are everything :)


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